Page 30 of The White Rider
“I’m Conquest, right? I get called whenever people have taken something they shouldn’t. They take their shit back, sometimes with Dice’s help, sometimes with Aeron’s. They have to build a new government from the ground up, and it’s always a clusterfuck. Some of the old political parties come back and want to do things the way that got them overthrown. New parties want to adopt ideas from the dictator, ideas that ravaged their country in the first place, and try to make them work. There’s always one group of revolutionaries with good ideas that everyone thinks are too radical.”
I nodded.
“I get that. It’s going to happen again now, just with the entire world instead of just one country. I don’t see the problem.”
“Because I wasn’t finished. My job is to go over all the options with Dice, Aeron, and Leif. We decide which ideas will lead to less war, death, and disease. It’s up to us to decide which party wins the election and controls that country.”
I frowned. That part, I didn’t get. If I could force an entire country to vote a certain way, I’d abolish healthcare premiums, and weed would be legal in every state.
“How do you manage to pull that with all the smear campaigns these politicians run and all the lobbyists in their pockets? My softball team agreed never to talk politics again because we couldn’t even agree on who to vote for governor, and things got a little ugly in our chatroom.”
Asher pouted like he knew he needed to tell me, but it was the last thing he wanted to do.
“Asher, we’re going to need whatever it is you do when this is over. Even in just the US, some things weren’t exactly working before all this and had no hope of ever getting better. Weneedyou.”
“You say that now. I can influence entire nations. Just enough to swing an election without everyone thinking we rigged it.”
“What happened in 2020?” I demanded. “I was a kid when that happened, and I remember Isaiah constantly ranting and donating money trying to get that election overturned. Half the country thought the election was rigged.”
“That wasnotme. I wasn’t even on Earth at the time. That was many people overcoming voter suppression by using absentee ballots, and people lost their shit. Are you even listening to me, Ariel?! I take away people’s free will! Don’t you see how that’s even worse than what Aeron does.”
“We keep telling you that’s not how it works,” Dice said.
“I’ve never seen you in action, but I agree with Dice. Isn’t the reason we are in this entire mess in the first place because Lucifer wanted free will like humans had? Don’t I have to deal with horrible PMS every month because two humans had the free will to eat from a tree they were told not to eat from? I’m sure if your father took away free will, he would have done it from the start. I mean, Adam and Eve kind of fucked all of humanity by eating that apple.
“After all the shit you’ve seen in the time you’ve been called, no one has ever stepped in and taken away free will. Think about it. If you could actually do that, don’t you think you’d be called as soon as the Antichrist was born to do that to them? You’d have a mindless little monkey instead of someone like my father. But that’s not what happens.
“I’m guessing you can appeal to the good in people. Maybe you call it mind control, but I call it giving people the ability to see beyond their preconceived notions to consider better options. If you could really take away free will, wouldn’t everyone do what you want?”
Dice wrapped his arms around my waist and squeezed me.
“We’ve been telling him that same shit for centuries. Most of it anyway. Asher goes out and talks to people about the elections. After a time, he was able to go on radio, then television. Not everyone agrees with him. He’s always had his haters when he’s called. There was once an entire printing press back in the day that was dedicated to making up anything they could about him.”
“You were with me that time and I remember that you enjoyed their stories a little too much,” Asher grunted.
“There was an art to sixteenth-century fake news.”
“Your brothers have seen you in action, and you’ve explained things to me,” I said. “We all think you’re awesome, and we’re going to need you when this is over. As Miss Mabel used to love to say to me, get over your shit because it’s not how it is in your head.”
Asher finally broke into a smile.
“I see why my brothers like you. They told me about your Miss Mabel. I’d like to meet her. Aeron said she beat the shit out of him with a broom.”
“Is this shit officially dealt with?” Dice asked. “Because we’re moving in on the ammunition factory in the morning, and those men aren’t exactly sane. A lot of shit could go wrong.”
I wasn’t done yet though, because I didn’t think Asher had truly gotten over his shit.
“Tell me this, Asher. If youreallycould take away free will, couldn’t you just force all those Bubbas to abandon Isaiah and join the resistance? We wouldn’t have to destroy the factory because they’d be making bullets for us now. You could surely just force all the other Bubbas to surrender with no one risking their lives to arrest them… right?”
“It doesn’t work like that—”
“Exactly!” Dice yelled. “If our father had really given you that ability, it would never be this hard every time we got called.”
Asher’s cheeks flushed, and he bowed his head.
“Yeah, I guess you’re right. Sorry. You’re pretty smart, Nephilim.”
“I learnedGetting Over Shit 101from Miss Mabel, but don’t ask me to do math.”
